Mario (SSBU): Difference between revisions

|tier = A+

|ranking = 21

'''Mario''' ({{ja|マリオ|Mario}}, ''Mario'') is a playable character in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]]''. He was suggested to appear in the then unnamed ''Ultimate'' in its first [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3Gt42kVgCw teaser trailer] at the end of the March 8th, 2018 [[Nintendo Direct]], and officially announced in ''Ultimate''{{'}}s [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L93H7YC-83o E3 2018 trailer] on June 12th, 2018 alongside the rest of the returning roster. Mario is classified as [[Fighter number|Fighter #01]], the first fighter number of the ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' [[veteran]]s and the overall roster. As in ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]'', {{s|mariowiki|Charles Martinet}}'s portrayal of Mario from ''[[Brawl]]'' was repurposed for ''Ultimate'' in all regions.<!--Do not add that this is the last Smash Bros. game where Charles Martinet voices Mario. Besides the fact this isn't done for other characters' pages, Jigglypuff and Lucina still use their voice clips from Rachael Lillis and Laura Bailey respectively in the Smash series instead of their current actors, so it's still possible for Martinet's voice to be reused in future Smash games.-->

Mario is currently ranked 21st out of 82 characters on the [[tier list]], in the A+ tier, as the second-highest character in the high tier. This is a slight downgrade from his 9th out of 54 ranking in ''Smash 4'' where he stood at the lower end of top tier, despite not facing many changes during the transition. Much like his previous incarnation, Mario's greatest asset is his effective frame data; most of his moves have little startup lag and have relatively low end lag. This results in Mario being fairly difficult to [[punish]] relative to most of the cast. His combo game is quite flexible, as Mario can rack up damage quickly and reliably, most notoriously with his up air ladders. In addition, he also has a versatile moveset: a disruptive [[projectile]] in his [[Fireball]], a [[reflection]]-based and [[reverse]]-based move in his [[Cape]] that can counteract [[camping]], and a decent, if niche [[edgeguard]]ing option with [[F.L.U.D.D.]].

However, Mario also has some notable weaknesses. Mario's overall range is below average, giving him trouble against characters with long [[disjointed]] range. Mario also suffers from a lack of consistent KO setups, due to having predictable, low range, and unsafe kill options at high percents, alongside his short frame and relative floatiness for a middleweight. Mario's average attributes do not allow him to quickly gain an advantage either, as the strengths of other characters can contest his, with the most notable being his overall range.

Overall, Mario's strengths outweight his weaknesses, and he has seen strong results in competitive play thanks to the efforts of players such as {{Sm|Dark Wizzy}}, {{Sm|Kurama}}, {{Sm|Nao|p=Hokkaido}}, and {{Sm|Snow|p=Japan}}.

Despite Mario's numerous strengths, he is not flawless. His attributes, while well-rounded, are not exactly exceptional, as many characters outclass him in various ways. Notable examples of this include {{SSBU|Pikachu}} having a more versatile edgeguarding game, {{SSBU|Luigi}} having better combo potential, {{SSBU|Steve}} having a superior camping game, {{SSBU|Sonic}} having substantially faster mobility, {{SSBU|Bowser}} having significantly stronger attacks, {{SSBU|Snake}} having a much more effective recovery, and {{SSBU|Shulk}} having drastically larger reach. In particular, the last one is his main weakness: his attacks generally possess relatively poor range.

His lack of reach which (was further worsened by the changes to his up-tilt universal nerfs to grabs) prevents him from fighting at a safe distance and makes him susceptible to [[Spacing]], and consistently forces Mario to approach characters on his own. This leads to having some difficulty against characters with large or [[disjointed]] range, particularly weapon users like {{SSBU|Lucina}} and {{SSBU|Cloud}}. As such, he will need to rely on close-quarters combat in order to fight decently against characters with disjoints. While back air is Mario's most effective spacing tool, it too suffers from a mediocre range that limits its utility against disjointed attacks.

Mario can also have some difficulty scoring KOs, as he has few strong and reliable finishers and has difficulty landing them, further compounded by his short reach, which limits his options, and a notable lack of KO confirms: outside of forward smash and up smash, none of his other KO moves are very reliable and consistently effective for doing what they're supposed to: his down smash can only KO reliably with its back hit and is unsafe on shield, Super Jump Punch can only KO at very high percentages or close to the blast zones, his back aerial has short range, his down aerial can sometimes have trouble connecting, his back throw is very slow and thus easy to DI, and his forward aerial is slow and must be sweetspotted (mid hit) in order to meteor smash, while the early hit and late hit (first and last active frame, respectively) have too much ending lag to be used as a combo extender while still being unreliable for killing due to their rather low knockback. Because of this, Mario tends to rely too much on his forward and up smashes or reads to score a KO, and his inconsistent KO potential is further worsened by the changes to rage, which hinders him more than other characters, as it doesn't increase knockback as much as in ''SSB4''. Since it also no longer affects set knockback, he can't use his Super Jump Punch as a KO confirm at low percents anymore if he has high rage, similarly to {{SSBU|Samus}}'s [[Screw Attack]]. Because of this, he must keep his forward and up smashes fresh and be careful to not get predictable  especially with the existence of [[stale-move negation]]. While his forward and up smashes are considered among the best of their type, they have their flaws too: the former has a sourspot located on Mario's arm, which, while very difficult to hit with, it outprioritizes the sweetspot and has rather mediocre power, while the latter has poor range in front of him, and thus it can have trouble in hitting small or crouching characters.

While his Fireball is useful in the neutral game for stopping approaches and is a decent edgeguarding tool, it's relatively weak for spacing and has noticeable ending lag, making it rather situational in comparison to other projectiles. Lastly, despite being known for his jumping ability (hence his original nickname, Jumpman), Mario's recovery is easy to gimp and is quite predictable. Despite his fast air speed and high double jump, Super Jump Punch, while fast and relatively safe, travels a merely average amount of distance altogether. This means that if Mario is knocked off stage without his double jump, he is extremely vulnerable to edgeguarding, and one hit could be all it takes to kill him. This also leaves Mario very vulnerable to semi-spikes, as they will likely launch him too far to recover at high percentages. Aside from Super Jump Punch, Mario has no other recovery options aside from utilizing [[Cape]]'s momentum stalling as a mix-up. Nevertheless, Super Jump Punch still offers a serviceable amount of recovery ability and can get the job done, should it be used properly.

Overall, Mario has many clear strengths and very few glaring weaknesses, resulting in said strengths outweighing said weaknesses. All in all, his above average mobility and largely reliable combo ability allows him to get the edge easily against most characters, as it is hard to escape from his wrath once he gets the advantage, while it is also easy for him to escape from his opponents’ wrath and regain the advantage. However, because of his low range, Mario must almost always fight in close quarters, and he often relies on [[read]]s to secure KOs. Mario has to be very careful off-stage as well in spite of his respectable edgeguarding game, as one exploit of his defenses can cause him to be unable to recover.

Mario has undergone a mixture of buffs and nerfs in his transition to ''Ultimate'', but despite being overall directly nerfed, the indirect changes to the game's engine drastically benefit his playstyle, plus the helpful buffs to his underwhelming moves causes him to be in a similar position overall.

However, Mario has also received noteworthy nerfs. A notable detriment to his toolkit is the universal nerfing of [[grab]]s; while his throws' excellent utility and his potentially devastating throw combos from ''SSB4'' remain, the increased startup on his dash and pivot grabs, the increased ending lag of all of his grabs and the reduced range on his dash grab make it harder for Mario to make use of his potent grab game. Furthermore, his neutral game, while still solid, has been toned down due to changes to some of his best moves in neutral. For example, his [[up tilt]], one of his most pivotal moves, has had altered hitbox placements with much shorter horizontal range, which significantly hinders its use as a reliable follow-up from his [[down throw]] at any percent against most characters, worsening both their combo potential and Mario's punish ability, as this was considered his most effective damage racking option, although this is partially compensated by up throw's improved combo potential at low percents. His [[dash attack]] can also no longer serve as a powerful [[2 frame punish]] that leads into a [[stage spike]], due to its late hit's angle being altered to send opponents away from Mario rather than towards him, the new animation gives him less protection overall and his forward tilt has lost its locking potential. On top of this, [[Super Jump Punch]] sweet spots edges 3 frames later, to the point of causing Mario to land on the stage and become much more vulnerable if he doesn't use it at a far enough distance, and due of the changes to [[rage]], it is much less effective for taking out stocks off the upper [[blast line]] below high percents. In combination with the changes to air dodging, this acts as a double-edged sword for Mario; while they still make him efficient at edgeguarding, these changes render it more effective for other characters to edgeguard Mario.

Overall, Mario retains all of his strengths from ''SSB4'': his extreme combo ability, impressive frame data, serviceable recovery with a high jump height and air speed, and excellent edgeguarding ability. However, his playstyle is fundamentally different due to ''Ultimate''{{'}}s reworked mechanics, requiring different strategies to achieve the same level of effectiveness that his previous incarnation was capable of, which combined with the higher playstyle diversity among the cast, results in a slightly higher learning curve and cerebral curve.  

|utiltdesc=A spinning uppercut. Effective for comboing into itself at low percents, and into aerial attacks from mid to high percents; however, the former combo can be escaped with the proper combination of [[DI]] and [[SDI]], and can be punished on hit at very low percents. Unlike in ''SSB4'', the move's altered animation results in the hitbox being positioned fairly high to the ground on the first frame it is active, creating a blind spot and making it fairly difficult or even impossible to hit shorter or crouching characters with the move. It vaguely resembles the second hit of the [[mariowiki:List of weapons in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars|Mega Glove]]'s combo from ''{{s|mariowiki|Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars}}''.

|fsmashdesc=A palm thrust that produces a small explosion. Though it is Mario's slowest ground attack, coming out on frame 15, it is among the quicker forward smashes and considered among the best in the game for several reasons: It is Mario's most powerful KO move when sweet spotted, KOing as low as 65% by the ledge, the fireball itself is disjointed, can be angled downwards or upwards to hit ledge hangs, and the start-up animation has Mario pull back his hurtbox deceptively far, inadvertently allowing him to avoid several attacks. However, the sweet spot is out prioritized by the sour spot.

|usmashdesc=An upward arcing headbutt. One of Mario's most reliable KO options. Its quick startup at frame 9 makes it a useful out of shield option, as well as being difficult to react to if the opponent is within its range. His head is intangible while its hitboxes are active, giving it pseudo-disjointed range. Its hitboxes reach behind Mario a good distance but do not reach as far in front of him, thus having trouble hitting short or crouching opponents in front of him. It has very fast interruptibility for its strength, at frame 40, and its damage output is also just enough to make it difficult for most characters to punish out of shield.

|dsmashdesc=A breakdancing variation of the {{s|mariowiki|Sweep Kick}} from ''Super Mario 64''. It hits in front of and behind Mario, and both hits [[semi-spike]] opponents, though the front hit is rather weak in comparison to the back hit. Mario's fastest smash attack, coming out as fast as all his tilts. Also capable of hitting ledge hangs.

|nairdesc=A flying kick. As a [[sex kick]], it loses its average power after the first frames. It is useful for breaking out of combos due to its very fast startup (frame 3), and as a versatile horizontal combo extender, as well as for locking opponents. [[Autocancel]]s in a [[short hop]]. Can combo into a tilt attack, up aerial, or grab at low percents if landing on the ground shortly after the hit, as well as boasting numerous KO confirms off the late hit at high percents. Very similar to the Jump Kick from ''Super Mario 64''.

|fairdesc=An {{iw|wikipedia|overhand|boxing}}. When hit clean, it is a [[meteor smash]] with enough knockback to KO under 45% offstage and has deceptively high combo potential. It has the slowest startup of his standard moveset (frame 16), high ending lag, and is Mario's only aerial that doesn't autocancel in a short hop. Other than lacking combo potential, the early and late hits are too weak to KO reliably.

|bairdesc=A {{s|wikipedia|dropkick}}. Has fast startup with low ending and landing lag, and more range than most of Mario's other aerials, making it an effective [[spacing]] tool and horizontal combo extender at low percents, as well as having the ability to pseudo [[Wall of Pain]] off stage. Also capable of KOing at higher percents, and can be used twice in a short hop, or with neutral, up and down airs.

|fthrowdesc=Spins the opponent around once and throws them forward. Can be followed up with dash attack at lower percents, or be used to set up tech situations and mixups, or edge guards. It can KO at very high percents at the ledge. It is based on the throw that he uses against [[Bowser]] in ''Super Mario 64''.

|dash      = 1.76

|rdash      = 35-38

|run        = 1.936

|rrun      = 35-38

|baseaccel  = 0.1

|addaccel  = 0.7

*{{Sm|Kurama|USA}} - One of the best Mario players of all-time who has been the uncontested best since mid-2022. He was ranked as high as 11th on the [[UltRank 2022]].  

*{{Sm|Lui$|USA}} - Although more known for his {{SSBU|Fox}} in the early metagame, he also co-mained Fox, using the character to place 7th at the supermajor {{Trn|Super Smash Con 2019}} and 17th at the supermajor {{Trn|Glitch 7 - Minus World}}. He dropped both characters during the online metagame in favor of {{SSBU|Palutena}}.

*{{Sm|Snow|Japan|p=Japan}} - Although a more recent competitor compared to other Mario players, since 2023 he has established himself as one of the best Mario players in Japan, having regularly placed top 8 at {{Trn|Sumabato}} events and other superregionals, including 2nd at {{Trn|Maesuma TOP 13.5 "U-22"}}. He has also performed well at majors, including placing 5th at the major {{Trn|Maesuma TOP 14}} and 7th at the major {{Trn|Sumabato SP Ultimate}}.

Fortunately, Mario's representation saw a rebound in 2022 thanks to Mario's best players remaining dedicated to the character. For one, Prodigy, now going by Kurama, began seeing a streak of strong performances on-par with what Dark Wizzy had pre-pandemic. In addition, although he never regained his former glory, Dark Wizzy still saw strong performances once in a while. Finally, new Mario players began making their marks on the scene, most notably {{Sm|Nao|p=Hokkaido}} and {{Sm|Snow|p=Japan}} in Japan. These positive results helped reverse Mario's declining representation in the metagame as well as opinions on the character. As it stands, Mario is ranked 21st on the current tier list as the second-highest character in the high tier, with some arguing he should be ranked in the top tier.

If Galeem defeats Dharkon, Mario watches in trepidation as Galeem unleashes a wave of light and is ostensibly vaporized with the rest of reality. If Dharkon defeats Galeem, Mario is seen lifelessly slumping over as the world is engulfed in darkness.

SSBU spirit Goo-Goo Buggy.png|80. Goo-Goo Buggy

Mario unlock notice SSBU.jpg|Mario's unlock screen when obtaining him in [[World of Light]].